The Karnataka High Court will hear former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna's plea against his recent conviction for rape on October 28. Revanna was convicted for raping a woman who had worked as a maid at his family's farmhouse, with a special court imposing a life sentence on him. The petition is being heard by a division bench of the high court consisting of Justices K S Mudagal and Venkatesh Naik T. The bench has issued a notice to the state government seeking its response, while also enquiring whether a Special Public Prosecutor will be representing the state in the matter. The former Hassan MP has been behind bars since May last year following his arrest on returning from Germany, where he had fled after several videos allegedly showed sexual assaults he had committed against women. Besides the life sentence imposed on him, the court had also ordered the payment of Rs 11.25 lakh to the victim. As previously reported by The Indian Express, Revanna’s petition argued that the actual evidence provided by the victim was contradictory to the contents of the complaint. The petition also raised several contentions regarding alleged issues with the evidence, such as how stains on a mattress could remain when examined in May 2024, without having been cleaned, when the alleged incident had happened between January 2021 and the end of January 2022. The petition had also questioned the victim's attendance at a housewarming ceremony at the farmhouse in 2023, as well as why she had not confided in any trusted person if she had been sexually assaulted. In September, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed Revanna's petition to have two other cases transferred from the judge who had convicted him in the first case. He had claimed bias on the part of the judge, while the court noted that any harsh observation from the judge alone would not be an indicator of bias.
